satisfaction and comfort as any other demonstration of it could do. Besides, all that I have done or attempted to do, in the direction of the general welfare, deserves no special manifestation of approval such as you suggest, since all this is within the scope of the service I owe my fellow countrymen who have trusted me.

These considerations lead me to the suggestion that I would be better pleased if the projects you outline were relinquished. With assurances of grateful appreciation, I am,

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) GROVER CLEVELAND.

When in 1900 the free coinage of silver was again the leading issue in the national campaign, the Chamber took the same position that it had held four years earlier, and exerted its influence on the side of sound money. On the eve of election in November it sent out a formal appeal through the various commercial bodies of the country which closed with the declaration that "The Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, realizing the peril of this agitation, the sinister character of credit when attacked, and knowing that the gold standard is the only standard upon which permanent prosperity can rest, believe now that the time has again come for commercial bodies and all men, whether engaged in farming, manufacture or trade, to unite in removing from political agitation once and forever the question of the standard of value upon which all the business of this country is transacted. The question has arisen above and beyond all parties and creeds, and now involves the honor of the nation and the integrity of the individual.”

CHAPTER XXV

COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION

HISTORY OF THE CHAMBER'S EXPERIENCE FROM EARLIEST TIMES-SUCCESS OF THE SYSTEM

1768-1918

A CENTURY and a half ago, at the very beginning of its existence, the Chamber established the principle of voluntary commercial arbitration and has adhered to it, with honor to itself and great usefulness to the world ever since. Its record in the matter is so creditable that it deserves to be traced in full, for it is both instructive and interesting.

At the second meeting of the Chamber on May 3, 1768, a committee of seven members was appointed for "adjusting any differences between parties agreeing to leave such disputes to this Chamber." A new and differently constituted committee was appointed at each meeting. On April 4, 1769, it was ordered that the names of persons having the disputes, with the sums awarded, should be entered on the minutes, and in May following this was modified by the proviso that it should be done unless both parties to a dispute objected to it. In June the records of three disputes, with names and awards, were inscribed in the minutes but no subsequent entry of the kind was made. There was evidently much objection to the proceeding, for in June the Committee of Arbitration was instructed merely to report in writing to the Chamber "what business hath or shall come before them during their appointment."

It was not known till many years later that there was in existence any records of these early arbitrations, but in 1913 an original manuscript volume was found in the manuscript

room of the Public Library, it having been purchased some time previously from a collector. In this volume were the records of arbitration cases from July 6, 1779, when the Chamber became a Royalist body, to November 1, 1792, nine years after the close of the Revolutionary War. Copies of these records were published in a neat volume by the Chamber of Commerce in 1913. As was said in the preface of that volume:

This was a great historic time in the development of New York, and the minutes constitute a historical document of high value, giving as they do an intimate view of the commercial life of New York in the later years of the eighteenth century, including the Revolutionary War, when this city was a centre of stirring events. Although containing about 50,000 inhabitants, New York was already, by reason of her spacious harbor, an active shipping port, and her leading merchants were owners of ships that traded in many parts of the world. Most of the disputes which are recorded in these minutes were differences over ships, and many of them applied to the terms of employment over masters and men. The cases tried were often submitted to the Chamber by the police authorities of the city. Many of the names recorded in the minutes are those of men prominent in the colonial period of New York, some of them being founders of families and fortunes existing to-day.

In February, 1770, an effort was made for compulsory arbitration in a motion that it be the standing rule of the Chamber that members should never refuse to submit all disputed matters of accounts that they might be concerned in with each other, or any other persons whomsoever, to the final arbitrament and determination of the Chamber collectively, or to such of the members as might be chosen by the parties, on pain of being expelled from the Chamber and disqualified from being ever again admitted a member of it. This motion, which was made by Isaac Low, one of the founders, was never brought to a vote. It was called up once afterward and referred to a future meeting for con

sideration, and was not heard of again. Similar proposal was made in 1787, and in a revision of the by-laws which was adopted on September 18 of that year, it was decreed that any member refusing to submit to arbitration either of the monthly committee or of such of the members as may be chosen by the parties, or of the corporation collectively, should be expelled. An effort was made to rescind this decree but failed.

An interesting light is thrown upon the manner in which this decree worked in practice by a minute in the proceedings of the Chamber forty years later, on January 6, 1829. A committee had been appointed to consider a motion to so amend the resolution of September 18, 1787, as to limit compulsory arbitration to disputes in which the amount involved did not exceed one hundred dollars. In its report the committee said that its members cordially approved the proposed amendment, yet, as in practice the resolution of 1787 had been obsolete for a long time, in their opinion it would be inexpedient now to revive any resolution or other regulation which would compel the members upon pain of expulsion to submit their disputes to the decision of the Chamber or to any committee of the same. The report was adopted, and compulsory arbitration was allowed to sleep the sleep of the obsolete undisturbed.

An effort in the direction of publicity was made in April, 1817, when it was decreed that the names of persons having disputes before the arbitration committee should be published in the newspapers, but no publication of the kind can be found. Five years later, in 1822, when monthly meetings of the Chamber had been superseded by bimonthly ones, it was decided to replace the monthly arbitration committee with a standing committee of arbitration, consisting of five members, one of whom should be a Vice-President of the Chamber and act as chairman, the other four to be elected by ballot at the annual meeting. The first standing committee was elected

on May 22. In April, 1840, a further and more radical change was made. The standing committee was renamed "Committee of Arbitration," was to consist of five members, one to serve as chairman for a period of one year and to be elected by ballot at the annual meeting; four others to be elected by ballot at monthly meetings, one retiring each month and a successor elected; neither the Chairman nor any member to be eligible for a new term till after the lapse of a year. A new standing committee, called "Committee of Appeals,' was constituted to which appeals might be made from decisions by the Committee of Arbitration. This committee was to consist of the President, first and second Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and Chairman of the Committee of Arbitration. No appeal could be made from a decision of the Committee of Arbitration in which the amount involved did not exceed one hundred dollars, and notice of intention to appeal must be given within ten days.

The first refusal to abide by a decision of the Committee of Arbitration which appears in the minutes occurred in September, 1844. The person against whom an award had been decreed refused to pay it on the ground that the committee had exceeded its authority in summoning and examining witnesses. The Committee of Appeals declined to hear the case and referred it to the Chamber for action. The Chamber, after long delay, in April, 1849, amended the by-laws, authorizing the Committee of Arbitration to hear witnesses, each party to the dispute to pay such fees as the committee might deem reasonable.

Both the Arbitration Committee and the Committee of Appeals were employed frequently and in the main gave satisfaction. The weak points in the system were that parties withdrew after arbitration had begun and before an award had been made, and that no method existed for enforcing awards.

In 1861 the State Legislature passed an act under which